Rapid identification of drug metabolites with tandem mass spectrometry

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Abstract
A method which involves the use of tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) for the identification of drug metabolites has been demonstrated with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The method is based on the fact that metabolites usually retain various substructures of the original drug molecule. MS/MS is capable of rapidly identifying molecules with characteristic substructures without prior separation. It is shown that this method makes it possible to postulate possible drug metabolite structures rapidly and systematically without the use of standards. The MS/MS method, as it was applied to the identification of the metabolites of a new antiepileptic drug, zonisamide, is discussed. In this case it was possible to identify isomeric metabolites due to their differences in vaporization times off the probe and their different daughter spectra. The complementary uses of the neutral loss and parent scans for the determination of the site of metabolism is demonstrated. A new figure of merit, the limit of identification, is introduced. The amount of the epoxide metabolite of carbamazepine necessary for its reliable identification in urine was shown to be 0.4 ng/μl. The application of various techniques to confirm preliminary findings with this MS/MS method are described.